Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain

Who'd Be a vampire? You get the same dinner every night, you can't sunbathe and you can't participate in the pleasures of the flesh without relieving your partner of all their blood. But worst of all, you never know what you actually look like because you have no reflection. It's not surprising then that vampires always seem so pissed off, after all they've got to put up with an eternity of this nonsense.

Kain is a vampire like any other. He has the usual dentistry problems and could probably do with a manicure. However, a bigger problem right now is that he's actually been 'dead' for 200 years and has just awoken to find that he's lost all his memories and previous powers. His other pertinent problem is that Nosgoth, the land he once ruled, is now under the control of a group of militant humans known as the Sarafan. Basically, poor Kain should have woken up about a century earlier.

Chicken Kiev

In Blood Omen 2, the fourth in The Legacy Of Kain series, it's up to you to recover Kain's powers and unite the land of Nosgoth under vampire rule once again. Blood Omen 2 is not a complex game. OK, there may be the odd rudimentary lever puzzle thrown in to stem the relentless flow of blood, but effectively you have 11 levels to savagely mutilate everything you see.

At first you can only kill with your claws. However, as things hot up in the streets and alleys of Nosgoth the usual array of clubs, swords and axes appear to usher proceedings on their bloody way. Controlling Kain in battle couldn't be easier. The lock-on fighting method keeps your closest enemy in front of you at all times and you just wade in with your weapon.

Your victims do offer some resistance; especially the knights and guards who block obvious lunges, but even they still follow a preset attack pattern, which once sussed means you can usually dispatch two or even three enemies at once.

You can also block attacks yourself every time you successfully do this Kain's rage meter increases slightly. When it reaches maximum you can perform special attacks, which do more damage than usual. You can also pick up enemies by the throat and throw them or (and this really does look painful) pin them up against a wall with one hand and then with the other swing your current weapon up between their legs. Ouch.

Garlic Bread

Our undead hero can also kill other vampires to relearn his forgotten 'Dark Gifts'. These powers allow Kain to do various vampire things such as jump great distances; charm enemies so they do what you want and enable you to turn into mist. Turning into mist is actually a lot better than it sounds. For a start it gives you the ability to sneak up on an unsuspecting foe and then decapitate, garrotte, disembowel or casually push a sword through the back of their neck.

Of course, regardless of the killing method employed the one thing that remains the same is drinking the blood afterwards. Kain has to drink blood to survive, so basically he has to keep killing. As far as gameplay goes you really can't get any simpler. Kill or die of thirst - not much of a choice really.

As the game progresses it becomes apparent that variety is kept to a minimum. Even on some of the later stages where the action should be getting climatic and frenetic exactly the same tactics are required: kill, drink blood, use dark gift, solve simple puzzle, pull lever, go through door. You literally just switch on your autopilot and allow yourself to be swept along by the cut-scene driven storyline.

GARLIC BREATH

Blood Omen 2 is certainly not for the feint-hearted - you also need a fairly brave computer to run it. The massive 2Gb install takes a while on a slow CD-ROM (you're looking at anything up to an hour) and the fantastic graphics demand a hefty processor too.

Visually Blood Omen 2 has a great industrial feel to it, similar to the Thief games. The atmosphere is also urban with plenty of people bustling about the city streets who react realistically to your presence. Innocent citizens even scream and run away if they spot you drinking blood from a recently dispatched enemy. Ultimately though, Blood Omen 2 is a console action/adventure - nothing more and nothing less. It's very linear, very simple and very enjoyable and charming while it lasts (in a gruesome kind of way). Nothing wrong with that, but under the blood and carnage you are left with very little depth, and ultimately the game doesn't leave much of a mark.

A big hug and a round of beers for the folks at Crystal Dynamics who decided to bring some fun back into the Legacy ofKain series. Controlling a character who's a badass from day one is a rare treat for adventure gamers, and it's what makes BO2 so gratifying to play. While it borrows heavily from Soul Reaver 2, from its elegant voice acting to its story-driven gameplay, it's done away with all the downers that dogged Raziel's second adventure. No more running cross-country just to revisit an old location, jumping over clueless enemies along the way. Each of Blood Omen 2's 11 chapters reveals an entirely new section of Nosgoth, usually containing crafty, region-specific enemies and unique non-playable characters.

Speaking of enemies, combat is where Blood Omen 2 really outshines previous games in the series. Between having access to any weapon an opponent drops and a nice blend of "Dark Gift" enhancements, Kain has an extensive arsenal of attacks and abilities. Sneak up behind a guard in the mist for a one-hit Stealth Kill, surprise a demon from 100 yards away with a leaping attack, or cast a soldier off a ledge after a firm choking. Kain is all about the killing, and having dozens of ways to get the job done keeps the game fresh.

You won't get hung up on any tricky puzzles in BO2--if you can handle Soul Reaver 2's mindbenders, you can handle these. Getting through tough spots usually just involves flipping the right combination of switches, but the game often makes you master a couple of Kain's Dark Gifts to get the job done. The "Charm" spell is particularly cool--it allows you to mentally inhabit nearby peasants and make them do your bidding. They're very helpful and often situated to reach areas Kain cannot. So show your gratitude by not killing all their cousins and friends in town. Ah, what the heck, go ahead. Kain was never much for gratitude, anyway.

Like all good video-game heroes, Blood Omen 2's star, Kain, brutally slaughters innocent townspeople, drinks the blood of his foes, and is maniacally blinded by vengeance. Actually, come to think of it, those aren't very heroic traits at all. Hey, who needs valor when you can be a bad-ass anti-hero? For the first time since the original Blood Omen game, Crystal Dynamics puts you in control of Kain, the deposed king of the undead, and the Legacy of Kain series may never be the same.

Chronologically, this title takes place 400 years after Kain's first appearance and 1,000 years before Raziel's adventure in the first Soul Reaver. The last few centuries have been rough, and Kain's power and influence have eroded. Angry, bitter and vengeful, he sets out to regain his lost powers, the Soul Reaver weapon and control of Nosgoth.

BO2 fuses action/adventure gameplay with standard RPG elements. You'll do your share of grisly murdering, but you must also chat up the locals in the pub to gain information. In combat, Kain's hand-to-hand fighting skills shine, and he can skillfully wield any weapon dropped by an adversary. However, these weapons can only sustain so much wear and tear before breaking. After felling a foe, Kain can heal himself by sucking his prey's blood. An impressive cloud of crimson spray flies from their corpses directly into his mouth. In addition to murderous moves, you'll also command abilities like shape-shifting and high jumping once you begin to amass the missing Dark Gifts.

Visually, BO2 sports amazingly ambitious graphics. Exploring a crowded, medieval city and underground maze is entirely seamless, so there is no loading as you enter and exit buildings. Kain's resurrection as the series' star is truly a grandiose one, and fans of the series will likely eat it up.